TWO OF
11 Powerful Portraits Of Modern American Witches
In Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America, photographer Frances F. Denny gives a glimpse into the lives of witches across the country.
In Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America, award-winning photographer Frances F. Denny presents a collection of portraits and insights gathered from three years spent meeting and photographing a diverse group of witches around the US. Below, 11 of those portraits.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ariannarebolini/powerful-portraits-modern-american-witches
Leonore Tija (Montpelier)
Frankly, I think that if your witchcraft is not political, you are still asleep. We need to wake up from the idea that witchcraft is just an aesthetic, just a superstition, or just about consolidating magical power for personal gain. In a culture as racist and patriarchal and transphobic and homophobic and materialistic as ours is, if you don’t see the way witchcraft is radical and revolutionary, you have some waking up to do. —Leonore Tija
Marie and Ébun (New York)
Marie C. Nazon, PhD, LMSW: I belong to a pagan community, Triple Spiral of Dún na Sidhe, where we do full and new moon rituals and follow the Celtic traditions of Samhain, Imbolc, and the Brigid flame. It is a daily practice of connecting with the Goddess through prayer, meditation, and ritual. I am also a Priestess (Mambo) in the Vodou tradition of Haiti. I get more disparaging remarks about that than being self-identified as a witch.
A “witch” is any woman who is grounded in her power, able to manipulate/shift energy for her highest good whether in the boardroom, the bedroom, or the kitchen. Any woman who uses the knowledge of the forces of nature to heal, or consciously manifest, is a witch.
My daughter and I are women of color and voluptuous women active in our communities as healers. My daughter grew up in circles of women who practice all sorts of Indigenous spirituality. Within these spiritual traditions are also what one may call witches, so it is not unique to just the pagans. But it is in that tradition we connect most with the Divine Feminine.
Ébun Zoule (daughter to Marie): I was really into taking online quizzes in middle school. I remember taking a quiz about what kind of hippie I was and the result I received was “neo-pagan.” I was thrilled with that answer because I felt like I was special, that the kind of hippie that I was had more spiritual connections to the earth and the universe. It felt revelatory to me. “I am Neo-Pagan. Hear me roar!” Little did I realize that my whole existence was filled to the brim with witchy rituals and practices — I just never put the word to those experiences. Growing up, witches were always depicted as white women. Therefore, how could someone like me, a Black girl, be a witch?
Taking that quiz was pivotal. But the spiritual experiences that my mother specifically provided for me wholly transformed the way that I engaged with myself and my personal power and the rest of the world. I was shown through my mother’s spiritual communities that women (all kinds of women — lesbians, trans women, teachers, priestesses, water-pourers, fire-keepers, activists, Indigenous women, Black and Latina women) have the power to make change for themselves and the world. Now whether that was through praying in a sweat lodge, dancing naked around a fire with other women, or calling on the ancestors for a grieving ceremony, I made subconscious notes about the kind of person I wanted to be in this world. The title “witch” will never not be part of who I am and my legacy. It’s so powerful.
“Witch” is totally political for me. It is a political practice in that it allows folks to manifest things for themselves and their communities rather than relying on a capitalist system. Solutions are found through community and self-spiritual guidance instead of capitalism and all of the ways it drains people of their power. I think capitalism is afraid of the word “witch” because it implies self-sufficiency. How could capitalism work if everyone was self-sufficient? ●
Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America (Andrews McMeel Publishing) is out Nov. 10.
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